So much to do (and eat) we need to go twice! A food-focused trip report. COMPLETE 7/28/22

[mickey916]

Enjoying your report very much!

Aw thank you! I'm enjoying writing it!

 

[vette79]

There goes my blood sugar levels

 

[mickey916]

There goes my blood sugar levels

I actually lost a half a pound after my trip (didn't take my blood sugar level though)...

 

[mickey916]

Day 2 - 4/1 Our First Park Day - Epcot - arrival & breakfast
​

We are early risers and rope-droppers. We got up and were ready to head out the door at about 7:30 for an 8:30 opening...and then we encountered an issue. I had brought my tablet and had put it in the safe the night before. I set the code and closed it. Then, I decided to take just what I needed for the parks out of my wallet and I opened the safe with my code, put my wallet in and closed it. The next morning I realized that I had left my AP card in my wallet so I entered the code and....nothing....hmmm. I figured I must have been too quick and hit a wrong #. I carefully enter the code again and....nothing....five or six more times and nothing. My DH tries (I guess just for giggles) and nothing...The safe has obviously malfunctioned with my wallet, tablet and AP card inside and now the safe is saying we have a 30 minute cool down period (we weren't very cool....). So, DH calls the front desk only to be left on hold for what seems like ages. Then, I decide to reach out in the app and get "we're sorry we're busy helping others". So it was a contest to see which of us which reach a human first. I won! Someone in the app responded they would send up security. Then, we waited...and waited...finally a maintenance man arrived and had to take apart the safe. He said it was all set and I could put in a new code. I got out my AP and attempted to set up a new code (with nothing actually in the safe) but it wouldn't let me set a new code so no safe for us this trip. Since it was April Fool's Day, I guess the joke was on us. We ended up leaving the hotel at 8:15.

After the long walk to the parking garage and a short drive to the parks, we arrived just before 9:00. The day was supposed to be a 7 on TouringPlans but we got right on Spaceship Earth, the Seas with Nemo & Friends, Living with the Land and Soarin'. Everything was a walk on! We don't need no stinkin' Genie...(Turns out it ended up only being a "4" on TP.) But this trip isn't about rides, it's about food and this day we had wild plans to eat something in every country. But first stop, a hearty breakfast at Sunshine Seasons (we may have also had a Gideon's cookie while we waited for the maintenance man but I forgot to take a pic).

Our breakfast: a 50th Celebration bundt cake from Sunshine Seasons. The cake was moist and chocolatey. It wasn't very big but a nice little treat to share. After breakfast, we enjoyed some of the Flower & Garden displays, rode Imagination as a walk on and then headed to World Showcase to begin our eating tour.

 

[mickey916]

Day 2 - Lunch in Mexico​

After planning our route for months, I suddenly realized a week or two before we left that this visit would be on a Friday in Lent and we don't eat meat on those days. This required some revamping but led us to try some things we might otherwise have overlooked. For lunch we headed to La Cantina de San Angel and shared an order of Cheese Empanadas with rice and beans and an order of churros for dessert.
These were pillows of cheesy goodness! Really, really good! We didn't miss the meat at all! The rice and beans were solid sides.

The churros were good but basic churros. We liked the chocolate dipping sauce but not as much as the chocolate sauce that comes with the beignets.

As we ventured around the world, we also did the Easter Egg hunt. It was really fun and forced us to slow down and spend time in each country. Sometimes the eggs were sooooo obvious once we found them that we couldn't believe we had missed them!



Donald in Mexico, of course. This was an easy one.

 

[Mich123]

I’m drooling already! Breakfast at Sunshine Seasons looks perfect!

 

[mickey916]

Day 2-Snack in Norway​

After riding Gran Fiesta Tour and looking around San Angel, we headed over to Norway and found the next egg.

Then it was time for a snack or two from Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe. We opted to try two treats. First up, the eplekake. This was absolutely delicious! It was soft with big chunks of apple and caramel topping.

Next up we tried the rice cream. I did not care for this at all. While the strawberry topping was flavorful, I just didn't care for the texture of the cream. I was expecting something like my Nana's rice pudding or tapioca but it was actually slimy. My DH didn't mind it as much as I did. Glad I tried it but won't buy one again.

Two countries down, nine to go!

 

[suse66]

Loving your report! Looking forward to reading more.

 

[mickey916]

Loving your report! Looking forward to reading more.

Thank you!

 

[mickey916]

Day 2 - China, Germany, & Italy Pavilions​

After visiting Norway, we continued onto China and officially hit the "our eyes were bigger than our bellies" point. So sadly we had to scratch the cheesy crab wontons off the list. We did find the next Easter egg though.
We then headed to Germany to find the next Easter egg (don't worry we did circle back later in the day for some delicious treats...can't skip Germany when it comes to snacks!)


We went to Italy and sadly still were too full for the bomboloni from the Primavera Kitchen, that we were planning on. We found the Mickey egg in Italy and then headed to France to ride Remy with our ILL$ that I had purchased mid-morning for an early afternoon slot.

I thought the Remy ride was very cute but my poor DH was really affected by the screens and motion. He is very prone to motion sickness and we didn't realize how much motion the ride involved. He ended up having to close his eyes each time we faced a screen. Looks like next month, he won't be joining the boys and me on this one again.

 

[mickey916]

Day 2 - American Adventure​

We finally had some room in our bellies and my DH's finally settled down after Remy so we headed to America and found Minnie.
We listened to the Voices of Liberty and placed a mobile order for some mac n cheese at Regal Eagle. I was hoping to try the brisket sandwich too but alas, it's a Friday in Lent so just mac n cheese for us.
This was cheesy and garlicky. Very good mac n cheese, but not the best one we had all week (you'll have to keep reading for that one). The portion was very small for sharing, since it is just a side, but that just left room for more snacks.

 

[mickey916]

Day 2 (continued) - Japan​

Next stop was Japan. We shared a Kakigori (rainbow flavor with sweetened condensed milk) from the Kabuki Café. It was surprisingly good! I was expecting a standard snow cone but the flavoring was much better than the artificial flavoring of a typical snowcone. We both enjoyed it a lot!


We then searched for the Easter egg wandering around Japan for what seemed like a really long time. We JUST couldn't find it. Then, eventually on about our fourth pass through we saw it and it was one of the MOST OBVIOUS ones of the whole egg hunt.


How we missed the bright purple egg in the middle of Japan is really beyond me!

 

[Lele010991]

I really want to take a trip with just me and my partner for the food! I always take my nieces and nephew with us, and they like to do the character dining, but HATE walking around Epcot's World Showcase unless we are getting on a ride. They'd rather do a quick service meal and keep it pushing lol.

Sounds like y'all had a lot of yummy food!

 

[mickey916]

I really want to take a trip with just me and my partner for the food! I always take my nieces and nephew with us, and they like to do the character dining, but HATE walking around Epcot's World Showcase unless we are getting on a ride. They'd rather do a quick service meal and keep it pushing lol.

Sounds like y'all had a lot of yummy food!

We had such a fabulous time (and ate REALLY well)! We probably never would have thought of going as just the two of us if my husband wasn't on a conference. But, we loved it so much we came home and booked a short trip for December to see the decorations and eat the holiday food.

 

[mickey916]

Day 2 continued - Morocco, France, United Kingdom​

We headed to Morocco and found thumper.
Then we split a Mediterranean flatbread from Tangierine Cafe. It was okay. It definitely needed something more, but I'm not sure what.

We found Daisy in France and hopped in line at L'Artisan de Glaces. Unfortunately after standing in line for about fifteen minutes we noticed that the same exact people were still in the doorway waiting to get in. We're not sure what was going on but there seemed to be a high school group congregating out front, so we're guessing they had just placed a massive order for their whole group. We got tired of waiting so no ice cream for us....really wanted to try the Croque Glace, next trip perhaps.
We headed on to the United Kingdom and of course had to get an order of fish & chips from Yorkshire County. Unfortunately this was a miss for us. The breading was crispy and delicious but the fish was too strong. In fairness, we're from New England and usually when we eat fish I've caught it myself so we knew it was probably not going to be as good as that. We're glad we tried it and the "chips" were good but it's a one and done for us.
We then found the white rabbit in the UK. This one was a tricky one as well.

Almost there, one country left, a visit to a Flower & Garden booth and circling back to Germany for the best treat of the day yet to come.

 

[mickey916]

Day 2 continued - Canada & Pineapple Promenade​

We finished our world tour in Canada with some maple popcorn. This was very tasty and reminded us of kettle corn that we get at local fairs.

We found Goofy in Canada.

and then stopped by Pineapple Promenade for the Frozen Desert Violet Lemonade. This was cool and refreshing but we enjoyed some of our other frozen drinks later in the week more.

Our Easter Egg hunt still had one spot left which by process of elimination we knew was Scrooge McDuck. We also knew it was in "world showplace" but had no idea where that was so didn't know where to look. Luckily we struck up a conversation with two women who were also searching for the Easter eggs and they told us where to look. Mission accomplished...

 

[mickey916]

Day 2 continued - Saving the Best Treat for almost last!​

After picking up our orange bird cup as our prize from the Easter Egg Hunt, we circled back for final desserts in Germany. First up, Sommerfest for Pretzel Bread Pudding.

Hands down, this was the absolute best dessert of the day (and almost the best dessert of the trip)! The pretzel bread gave it a saltiness that contrasted extremely well with the sweet caramel and sugar. So delicious!

We also stopped by Karamell Kuche to buy the gingerbread salted caramel cookie that we had seen rave reviews about. It was good but it didn't seem as amazing as what we had seen others post on social media. One interesting thing we noticed a few times during the week was that the treats we received didn't always resemble what we had seen posted by DFB and Allears. This was our first example...here's what we got:

Here's a link to what we expected to get: Disney Food Blog photo As you can see ours had very little filling and appeared to be missing the salted caramel. Maybe that's why it wasn't as great as we expected. We also bought a caramel butter bar but didn't eat it until later in the week and I forgot to grab a pic. It was good but probably better when fresh.

We ended the night watching the Beacons of Magic on Spaceship Earth and headed back to the hotel.


So, how did we do with our goal of eating in every country? Pretty well. We only missed China, Italy, and France, so not too bad! Total cost was $101.59, paid solely with my Disney rewards, so free to me! It was a really fun day, one of the best of our trip!

 

[Mich123]

That gingerbread cookie just isn’t right! I had one in February and there was so much more filling. Thanks for sharing your trip around the world! I’m heading to WDW later this week and I’m thinking I need to try the kakigori and maple popcorn. Yum!

 

[mickey916]

That gingerbread cookie just isn’t right! I had one in February and there was so much more filling. Thanks for sharing your trip around the world! I’m heading to WDW later this week and I’m thinking I need to try the kakigori and maple popcorn. Yum!

We had a couple items that weren't what we expected...more to come! Enjoy your trip and have lots of snacks!

 

[mickey916]

Day 3 4/2 Animal Kingdom​

This morning we got up and headed out with no drama, arriving at park opening right at 7:30. As soon as the park opened I picked up a ILL$ for Flight of Passage for myself for mid-day. After stopping for some photopass photos, we walked to Pandora and walked right on Navi. It was a nice ride but nothing we would have wanted to wait any length of time to ride. The safari was opening at 8:15 so when we got off Navi we headed directly to Africa to get in line. The line was stretched past Tusker House but we figured that was just because it hadn't opened yet. Touringplans had predicted a 20 minute wait so we expected to wait a little. The line started to move at 8:15 but then the lightning lane people started showing up as well as the VIP tours and we just stood there. We couldn't believe the huge numbers of people walking through the lightning lane, full tram-loads of people so we just didn't move. I had timed it for TouringPlans and we ended up waiting 55 minutes. Right then we made the decision to buy Genie+ for Animal Kingdom on our May trip. When we finally made it on, we had a great safari and got a great view of the male lion.
We decided to stop by Tamu Tamu refreshments for a mickey cinnamon roll and found a nice table behind the restaurant to enjoy our breakfast. It was a fine cinnamon roll but nothing exciting (and I could do without the blue icing).

We next took the train for Rafiki's Planet Watch so we could pet some animals. We were actually quite surprised at how few animals there were there available to pet. Most were "taking a break" behind ropes. There was nothing going in the veterinary area so we headed back. The train ride was nice at least.

We then walked the Gorilla Falls trail but it was very crowded and we were at least thirty people deep at each viewing spot so that was challenging as well. We decided to place a mobile order at Satuli Canteen for an early lunch and headed back to Pandora.

We shared an order of cheeseburger pods and a chicken noodle bowl with garlic herb sauce. We thought this was a very tasty lunch. The cheeseburger pods were good but we prefer the ones I make at home, pretty basic ground beef in a bao bun but still good. I really liked the "veggie chips".


The chicken noodle bowl was excellent.

The inside eating area had just opened up so it was nice to have lunch away from the crowds.

Refueled and refreshed, we headed back out to navigate the park. As an observation, we find this park very hard to get around and frustrating as we try to figure out how to get where we want to go. Observing the crowds it seems like we're not alone. We saw lots of people looking at maps or their phones trying to navigate. I understand it was designed this way to replicate wandering through nature but we're definitely not the "wandering" type. Note to self: study the Animal Kingdom map more before our May trip.